Ok so a couple of weeks that have been a little up and down. I am sure you are more interested in the current state of affairs with the fluffies!
Well Merlin unfortunately went into kidney failure on Saturday night of the 11th, and was admitted to vet hospital and on a drip for 4 days, was then taken off the drip and given fluid injections instead. We have had him home now for a week and he has been doing well fingers crossed. He is on a special kidney diet and he had a blood test this week and it showed that his kidneys are working but he has high potassium levels and also has non responsive anaemia. We have to keep our fingers crossed that his kidneys are able to continue to function and that the potassium returns to normal and that his bone marrow starts responding and the anaemia goes. . He is his usual naughty self as you can see it hasn't slowed him down too much at the moment so hopefully he has made a full recovery. Life without Merlin this week has been really flat and depressing. We went in to see him every day at the hospital, and once he was off the drip took his toys in. He had all the vets, nurses and staff all wrapped around his little paw pad, they thought he was such a character!! I think this was a diplomatic statement as he would trash his cage every day, swipe at anyone going past his cage, and generally show all signs of anti social behaviour that he has!! On the last night he had trashed his cage so bad he had to be moved to a new one!! They also clipped his nails, I feel the flicknives were probably too much!! We kept expecting to see various nurses etc with bandages etc, post Merlin!!
Well Merlin unfortunately went into kidney failure on Saturday night of the 11th, and was admitted to vet hospital and on a drip for 4 days, was then taken off the drip and given fluid injections instead. We have had him home now for a week and he has been doing well fingers crossed. He is on a special kidney diet and he had a blood test this week and it showed that his kidneys are working but he has high potassium levels and also has non responsive anaemia. We have to keep our fingers crossed that his kidneys are able to continue to function and that the potassium returns to normal and that his bone marrow starts responding and the anaemia goes. . He is his usual naughty self as you can see it hasn't slowed him down too much at the moment so hopefully he has made a full recovery. Life without Merlin this week has been really flat and depressing. We went in to see him every day at the hospital, and once he was off the drip took his toys in. He had all the vets, nurses and staff all wrapped around his little paw pad, they thought he was such a character!! I think this was a diplomatic statement as he would trash his cage every day, swipe at anyone going past his cage, and generally show all signs of anti social behaviour that he has!! On the last night he had trashed his cage so bad he had to be moved to a new one!! They also clipped his nails, I feel the flicknives were probably too much!! We kept expecting to see various nurses etc with bandages etc, post Merlin!!
It was funny on Friday, as he has this habit of going into the bush further down the road which we are concerned about as it leads to the busy main road and also we hadn't seen our sheep for a couple of days I thought I would take Merlin and the intrepid adventurer (Simba) into the sheep field to try and find them and introduce Merlin to a safe and much more interesting and larger area for exploration. Well we followed the perimeter fences and little Merlin had to be rescued from one tree (another fine mess his tail got him into - see end of piece for explanation!!) and as soon as I went too far ahead he was calling me back, not so brave after all! Well them poxy sheep alluded us, found a dead possum, was expecting to find a couple of dead sheep, but on the last bend in the field I spied them, standing under a tree, hiding, however so did Simba, and Simba thought 'these need exercise, I need to chase these!' and off he went, to be severely called back by me. We all survived the adventure and hopefully if we take Merlin up there a few more times he may get the hang of it and choose there as his adventure playground.
As you can see he seems to be doing well at the moment...
As you can see he seems to be doing well at the moment...
Wolfie went for his CT Scan on Wednesday 13th and the news there is somewhat more negative. Unfortunately he had got a tumour in each lung and they are quite advanced. It is inoperable unfortunately, but we can give him as good a time and quality of life for the time he has left. We stayed up in Christchurch that night and so the boys had a change of scenery and a different beach to play at. On the way back we stopped at the river for a paddle. Ironically he has been better than ever really in health since and much more active and alert, so all is good so far in as much as his quality of life.
The boys supervising me updating blogSimba we think is suffering from depression! He is even more 'Kevin the teenager' than normal, and he seems very low. I guess they know when one of their kind is sick, so we are trying to bolster his mood.
We have found a doggy social club which we went to last week, last Sunday we took the dogs to a different doggy exercise area and met up with some other dogs, and advised of this doggy get together that happens weekly usually on a Monday evening at another doggy exercise area, but after this week they were going to move it to a weekend as the clocks have gone back and it gets dark earlier. For those who don't read Simbas blog, they have really cool playgrounds around an acre in size with agility equipment and seats etc that is all enclosed and just for dogs to romp about in. Well wickid!! So on Monday Simba, Wolf and I (Paul was dying in bed with Man Flu!!) went along to meet the others. There were around 15 dogs in total all running about together. Simba and Wolf however decided to sit on the sidelines and watch!! Ever lazy my dogs!! So now we will all continue to meet up on Sunday afternoons sometimes at one of the exercise areas (there are 5 in total in Dunedin) or at the different beaches around. So the dogs can have a social life at least!
Paul and I have taken up golf in earnest, we have purchased the clubs, the shoes and having lessons with our pro Anthony. We have our 3rd lesson tomorrow. We are really enjoying it and looking forward to joining a club and playing a round weekly.
And onto the home improvement updates, well we have had the chimneys swept, mended the coal range and so now have a toasty warm house at night. The range is going all the time for the last week so also have constant hot water as it has a back boiler, so saving a little on electricity from heating the water. We are also in the process this week of replacing the tin roofing on the veranda with polycarbonate sheeting instead as this lets in more sunlight and looks nicer too. We are about to start the process of enclosing the back/court yard with a polycarbonate roof as well so we will have an outside/garden room (not quite a conservatory, but should work) for the winter, as we have the fire bath there already it will be nice to cover the rest so we get out of the bath and can sit under cover eating and drinking with the patio heater on too. This is the plan at least.......
Ah yes and we have also installed a dog flap in the door of the utility room (laundry to Kiwis) that leads to the tin shed where we cut out a hole for the dogs to access the back yard. It was getting a bit draughty in the evenings with the door open so we decided to install a doggy flap in the door and this works great, the dogs now have their own executive entry and exit from their accomodation suite to the outside world. Hey I even put down astroturf for them in the section of back yard from their door to the main part of the yard! They are like so spoilt!! 
Ok so kept you in suspense long enough.........
Yep I have a job, and it is a 'proper' job as well!!!!!!!!
I start next week on the 2nd of April.
I bet some of you are wondering now what I will be doing, well email me if you need to know, i had it posted on here but now I have started I want to remove the job title.
We went out for a meal last night to Etruscos again to celebrate my job among other things relevant to us (unfortunately Speights, where they do lovely cider and fab steaks was fully booked so we will go there in a few weeks on our next date of meaning to dine out) we had a lovely time and meal, followed by a wander around town with a coffee and dessert in a place called Metro followed by a drive and listening to music in the car chilling.
However the chocolate mud slab that I ate gave me horrendous indigestion all night......
We are still addicted to 24 and are on the last series now, so i don't know how we will survive without Jack Bauer in our lives!! LOL
Oh yes and another thing, I have a kiwi driving license now, as I took my driving test this week, and passed!! believe me Brits, it is not that easy as they have some different traffic laws out here that take a while to get used to....
Oh and I have to go for my medical this week then off to immigration to put my application for residency in.... needles and pain.... I don't want to think about it.... and thats just the medical!! LOL
I am sure loads more has been going on but I cannot think about it all, but hey I can always add another post later if I remember.
Ah yes the explanation of Merlins tail, we have come to the conclusion that Merlin suffers from split personality/Bipolar disorder and the tail is the 'bad' Merlin. He is as sweet as anything as long as the tail isnt wagging, and boy when it wags that means trouble!, trouble for us, trouble for him, trouble for all!!
The tail tells him to do things... honestly you can see him negotiating with his tail regularly.
Here are a couple of pics of Paul and Merlin - Man and boy together, Paul is trying to give Merlin some sound advice on the pitfalls of drug dependancy!! Look at Britney and Robbie for example!!!
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